{"id":10454,"date":"2019-10-03T13:22:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T20:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=10454"},"modified":"2019-10-14T14:49:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T21:49:26","slug":"the-true-story-behind-cherry-the-russos-new-movie-starring-tom-holland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/the-true-story-behind-cherry-russo-brothers-tom-holland-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"The Crazy True Story Behind &#8216;Cherry,&#8217; The Russos&#8217; New Movie Starring Tom Holland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve been following his Instagram lately, then you might have noticed Tom Holland is shooting a new project with the Russo brothers \u2013 but <a href=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/tom-holland-is-reason-for-spider-man-in-mcu\/\">this time, it&#8217;s not a Marvel movie<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B3Ha6E_lUF-\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"12\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B3Ha6E_lUF-\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/p>\n<div style=\" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 19% 0;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;\"><svg width=\"50px\" height=\"50px\" viewBox=\"0 0 60 60\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\"><g stroke=\"none\" stroke-width=\"1\" fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><g transform=\"translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)\" fill=\"#000000\"><g><path d=\"M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631\"><\/path><\/g><\/g><\/g><\/svg><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 8px;\">\n<div style=\" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\"> View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\">\n<div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: auto;\">\n<div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a> <\/p>\n<p style=\" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B3Ha6E_lUF-\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;\" target=\"_blank\">My Pooch and Me. Off now to go begin my latest venture with the @therussobrothers \u270c? I\u2019m going to be taking a short break from instagram, so see you all in the not so distant future \u2764\ufe0f<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\">A post shared by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tomholland2013\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;\" target=\"_blank\"> Tom Holland<\/a> (@tomholland2013) on <time style=\" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;\" datetime=\"2019-10-02T12:32:44+00:00\">Oct 2, 2019 at 5:32am PDT<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Instead, their next project together is <em>Cherry<\/em>, based on the debut novel of the same name by Nico Walker, with Holland set to play the protagonist. Walker&#8217;s novel is based on his own true experiences as a soldier and veteran suffering from PTSD. He wrote the book on a typewriter over the course of a few years&#8230;while sitting in a jail cell. Why? Because Walker has been in federal prison since 2013 for bank robbery.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the true story behind <em>Cherry<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>He Grew Up In The Most Normal Of Ways<\/h2>\n<p>Walker&#8217;s story is surprising; he isn&#8217;t someone you&#8217;d expect to become a criminal. His book is the darkest kind of coming-of-age story, the kind where the kid doesn&#8217;t grow up and get more mature by the end, but devolves and loses himself. How did he get there?<\/p>\n<p>Nico Walker came from a supportive family that was financially well-off, affluent enough to send him and his older brother to a private school in Cleveland. He grew up interested in music and sports and was funny and smart, but always unfocused. He did what he was supposed to, tried to keep good grades, went to college. Still, there was always something ungrounded and restless in him. He sold weed, he broke into a house or two for fun. But after 9\/11, it bothered him that young people his age were being sent off to fight and he was there, just screwing around smoking weed and doing petty crimes out of boredom, so he decided to enlist.\u00a0He dropped out of college at age 19 and joined the Army, determined to avenge America and innocent Iraqis against the scourge of terrorism. It changed him forever.<\/p>\n<h2>Iraq Changed Him Forever And Sent Him Back Broken<\/h2>\n<p>In 2005, Walker was sent off to Iraq, stationed in an area 30 miles outside Baghdad in an area known as the Triangle of Death. He served as an Army medic, going on over 250 combat missions in a single year&#8217;s time, missions from night patrols to check for insurgents planting roadside bombs to one particularly horrifying early mission that involved a bombed-out Humvee and bodies burned beyond recognition. He soon discovered how badly soldiers and the American public had been lied to, led to believe that there was a threat to the Iraqi people only to realize it was the aggressive American soldiers who were the real threat. Walker participated in numerous missions and raids in which they learned after the fact innocent Iraqis had been killed. He saw countless people on both sides and innocents in the middle die in front of and on him; his medic role immersed him in a sea of gruesome injuries and death.<\/p>\n<p>He was sent back to the United States with multiple medals for valor and citations for bravery, on the surface a hero. But underneath, Walker was a broken man. His time in Iraq had exacted a steep toll and he had come back shattered inside and unable to cope with life or what he had seen in Iraq.\u00a0His return to civilian life, like that of so many soldiers, was a rough transition. Walker was suffering from undiagnosed PTSD, dealing with deep depression, trauma, and adjusting back to a &#8220;normal&#8221; life that was no longer normal. He wrestled with acute survivor&#8217;s guilt, tormented by the thoughts of all the people he couldn&#8217;t save.<\/p>\n<p>Later, Walker was diagnosed with what one forensic psychiatrist said was one of the worst cases of PTSD he&#8217;d ever seen. But at the time, no one knew how to help him. There is a stigma with soldiers getting help and more than that, there is a rift between soldiers who have been to war and civilians who haven&#8217;t. As Walker explained in <a href=\"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/meet-nico-walker-iraq-war-hero-incarcerated-bank-robber-and-debut-novelist\/\">a 2018 interview with Electric Literature<\/a>, there really <em>was<\/em> no helping him because there was no understanding what he had gone through:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I don\u2019t know what anyone can do about PTSD. You can\u2019t un-experience things. I got a letter from a woman with PTSD the other day and she put it well. She said, You can\u2019t unsee things. Which is about right. And you just can\u2019t un-know what you know. What you know about life. What you know about what\u2019s out there. There\u2019s definitely a disconnect between Americans who\u2019ve been to places like Iraq or Afghanistan, or whatever places like that, and people who haven\u2019t ever been to such places. So it\u2019s hard to think of any way that the one can get much help from the other. Time is the best thing that can help someone who\u2019s having problems like\u00a0PTSD.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>He Started Spiraling Into Addiction And Turned To Crime<\/h2>\n<p>He tried to settle back into normal life but that was no longer an option. He felt disconnected, paraonid, adrift. He tried joining a band, reenrolling in college, but nothing worked. He started drinking, then turned to heavier drugs. Soon, he and his wife, whom he&#8217;d married before he deployed, separated. The Veterans Affairs office told him he had anxiety and gave him antidepressants; a second evaluation misdiagnosed him with bipolar disorder. He soon turned to drugs and eventually to heroin to self-medicate and quiet his demons.<\/p>\n<p>Spiraling and out of control, Walker&#8217;s addiction grew more acute and he turned to desperate measures in order to fund his heroin addiction. In December 2010, he finally crossed the final line and started robbing banks in and around Cleveland. The first robbery was completely spontaneous, but he got a rush of adrenaline and a rare moment of clarity, the kind of razor-sharp focus he&#8217;d had in combat. Along with opioids, it became his other drug, the only time he felt almost at peace with a purpose. So desperate was his need for heroin that he robbed 10 banks in the span of just four months, making off with almost $40,000 combined from his heists and terrorizing banks around the city.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2011 his crime spree finally came to an end when he robbed a bank and sped away with the police in hot pursuit. He crashed in the parking lot of a Burger King and broke a vertebra in his back, arrested minutes later by the police. He pled guilty to all charges and was given an 11-year sentence.<\/p>\n<h2>While In Jail, He Received A Letter That Changed His Life<\/h2>\n<p>Two years after his prison sentence began, in 2013, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/scottbuzz\/passing-the-note-is-the-bang-how-a-war-hero-became-a-serial\">was profiled by BuzzFeed<\/a> in a piece that highlighted his crimes and military service. Matthew Johnson, the co-owner of Tyrant Books, read the piece and was compelled to write Walker a letter. The pair struck up a friendship through correspondence and Johnson eventually convinced Walker to write a book and tell his story. Walker spent the next four years writing and rewriting, sending pages off to Johnson and waiting for edits to come back, typing his story out bit by bit on a typewriter in prison.<\/p>\n<p>His book, <em>Cherry<\/em>, was finally published in 2018 after months of wading through sticky legal waters; Walker has used the money from his publishing contract to pay back the banks from which he stole. Just days after it was released, the movie adaptation rights to the book were acquired by Joe and Anthony Russo for $1 million. Seven months later, Tom Holland was cast in the lead role with a movie release date set for sometime in 2020. Filming started this month, October 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Nico Walker is scheduled to be released from prison in November 2020. He plans to keep writing. As it turns out, he still has a lot more to say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve been following his Instagram lately, then you might have noticed Tom Holland is shooting a new project with the Russo brothers \u2013 but this time, it&#8217;s not a Marvel movie: View this post on Instagram My Pooch and Me. Off now to go begin my latest venture with the @therussobrothers \u270c? I\u2019m going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-10454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10458,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454\/revisions\/10458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}